Split Domain Migration

I am planning to use the split-domain setup for an exchange to zimbra migration, so that users who are not migrated, can still be mailed from migrated users. I am clear on the process to implement my Zimbra box, as the secondary server, but I am not clear on how to remove the forwarding action, after all migrations are completed, and the exchange server is removed. I don't want the Zimbra server to continue to push non-existing accounts into the abyss.

2. We also highly recommend that, in a secondary Zimbra system, you turn off DNS lookups and internet wide message routing from the secondary host and route all mail through the primary. You can accomplish this by:
$ zmprov mcf zimbraMtaRelayHost mail.example.com
$ zmprov mcf zimbraMtaDnsLookupsEnabled FALSE

So of course you will need to null/change those back as well if you modified them.

Thanks Soxfan. My last question in the post was, do I have to enable the dnslookup once it is set as the primary email server.

Also, to confirm, if zimbra is the primary server now, does it mean emails coming to my email account @mail.account.com will be delivered to mail.account.com. As it is now, mail.account.com is on zimbra.mail.account.com.

So, if I am to make zimbra the primary server, I will have to do the following:

My last question in the post was, do I have to enable the dnslookup once it is set as the primary email server.

Yeah, I saw this question, but didn't want to steer you in the wrong direction. I don't think this is really a Split Domain thing. I would suggest that you look over the documentation, wiki, and forums for info on this setting.

Also, to confirm, if zimbra is the primary server now, does it mean emails coming to my email account @mail.account.com will be delivered to mail.account.com. As it is now, mail.account.com is on zimbra.mail.account.com.

I'm a little confused now. In a traditional Split Domain migration you would have users for the same email domain (let's say domain.com) spread out over two servers (perhaps more) - say old-server.domain.com and zimbra.domain.com. Once you migrated all the users off of old-server.domain.com you are ready to make zimbra.domain.com you're primary server. You would then reverse the catch-all settings, as you've indicated. Then assuming you've got everything setup as far as DNS/MX records and whatnot the zimbra.domain.com server should start handling all email for domain.com

I'm a little confused now. In a traditional Split Domain migration you would have users for the same email domain (let's say domain.com) spread out over two servers (perhaps more) - say old-server.domain.com and zimbra.domain.com. Once you migrated all the users off of old-server.domain.com you are ready to make zimbra.domain.com you're primary server. You would then reverse the catch-all settings, as you've indicated. Then assuming you've got everything setup as far as DNS/MX records and whatnot the zimbra.domain.com server should start handling all email for domain.com

This is similar to what I was asking. The old server mail.account.com and the new server zimbra.mail.account.com. I created a domain of mail.account.com in to zimbra.mail.account.com. So now that I have migrated all the users from the old server mail.account.com in to the new server zimbra.mail.account.com, I now want to make the new server as the primary server. But all accounts are users@mail.account.com instead of users@zimbra.mail.account.com. Because I want to still keep my old server domain name....

This is similar to what I was asking. The old server mail.account.com and the new server zimbra.mail.account.com. I created a domain of mail.account.com in to zimbra.mail.account.com. So now that I have migrated all the users from the old server mail.account.com in to the new server zimbra.mail.account.com, I now want to make the new server as the primary server. But all accounts are users@mail.account.com instead of users@zimbra.mail.account.com. Because I want to still keep my old server domain name....

If your new Zimbra server is receiving email for accounts with "@mail.account.com" addresses then you should be fine. If, however, you've configured it such that the addresses on the Zimbra server are are of the form "@zimbra.mail.account.com" then this is not what I would call a "traditional" Split Domain setup (as described in the Zimbra wiki and discussed in these forums) and all bets are off. If the latter is the case then you probably want to search around and start a new thread, if necessary, on renaming a domain in Zimbra.

The server name itself really doesn't necessarily determine the email domain. The email domain is controlled by your Zimbra configuration. So, if the server name of your Zimbra server is zimbra.mail.account.com that's fine; you can still receive email for the "@mail.account.com" domain. You will just have to make sure your DNS/MX records are correct.

I will note that I much prefer the simple "@domain.com" setup, but I don't see any reason why your setup won't work. If others see any fault in this setup/logic please post.